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Teacher suspended over Game of Thrones T-shirt

Daenerys Targaryen

Emilia Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen. The character is described this way on the HSO website: "Princess of House Targaryen, she lives in exile in Essos. Dany's grief has not stopped her from strategizing her return to the Seven Kingdoms to take back the throne." She's also known as "Mother of Dragons." The winged creature next to her is named Drogon. (HBO photo/Macall B. Polay)

PARAMUS, New Jersey-- A college professor was suspended for posting a picture of his 7-year-old daughter wearing a Game of Thrones shirt with the quote "I will take what is mine in fire and blood," according to northjersey.com.

The quote was spoken in season two of the wildly popular series by the character Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons.

Among the audience for the post was a dean at Bergen Community College that perceived the picture as a threat and reported it as such.

As a result, art teacher Francis Schmidt was suspended without pay and sent to a psychiatrist before being allowed to return.

According to the report, the human resources personnel that interviewed Schmidt about the threat may not have been familiar with the line.

A search on Google yields more than 30 million results.

Officials said they were concerned that the word "fire" meant a threat related to firearms.

“I
had no idea what to say to that. For God’s sake, I’m a middle-aged art
professor,” Schmidt said. “I don’t own any firearms.”

An ongoing labor dispute at the school may have contributed to the suspicion, according to Al.com affiliate NJ.com.